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Generate Customer Derived Trade Areas (Business Analyst Tools)

Summary

Creates trade areas around stores based on the number of customers or volume attribute of each customer.

Illustration

Generate Customer Derived Trade Areas tool illustration

Usage

  • The spatial reference of the output feature class will be the same as that of the store layer.

  • The Stores and Customers parameter values must both be point features.

  • Valid numeric values must be used when identifying a volumetric field to be used as a weighted value.

  • When the Method parameter is set to Threshold Drive Times, Overlap will be the only option available for the Dissolve Option parameter.

  • The trade area boundaries can be set to expand until they encompass user-prescribed customer counts or summed and weighted numeric values, such as sales.

  • Store-to-customer assignments are controlled during set up using a common, user-specified ID.

Parameters

Label Explanation Data type

Stores

A point layer representing store or facility locations.

Feature Layer

Store ID Field

The unique ID field representing a store or facility location.

Field

Customers

An input point layer representing customers or patrons.

Feature Layer

Associated Store ID Field

An ID field that will be used to assign individual customers to stores.

Field

Output Feature Class

The output trade area feature class.

Feature Class

Method

Specifies the type of customer-derived trade area that will be generated.

  • Simple—A generalized trade area based on the percentages of customers corresponding to each store will be generated.

  • Amoeba—Points representing the boundary of the polygon trade area will be connected using natural curvature.

  • Detailed—Points representing the boundary of the polygon trade area will be connected using straight lines.

  • Detailed with smoothing—Points representing the boundary of the polygon trade area will be connected with smoothed curves using cubic splines. This method takes into account the shape and pattern of the customer distributions. This is the default.

  • Threshold Rings—Concentric rings that expand from input stores until they contain the specified threshold of customers will be generated.

  • Threshold Drive Times—Polygons that expand from stores along network routes until they contain the specified threshold of customers will be generated.

String

Radii (%)

The values that will be used to represent the percentage of customers, for example, total count or a customer attribute and total sales assigned to each store. Each value represents one trade area polygon.

Double

Customer Aggregation Type

Specifies the type of aggregation that will be used.

  • Count—Percentage-based trade areas will be calculated using the geographic locations of customers. This is the default.

  • Weight—Percentage-based trade areas will be calculated using a customer attribute, for example, sales.

String

Customer Weight Field

(Optional)

The field that will be used to calculate the trade areas. This is based on either the number of customers (count) or the calculated weighted value assigned to each customer.

Field

Exclude Outlying Customers

(Optional)

Specifies whether outlying customers will be excluded from the trade area generation.

  • Checked—Outlying customers will be excluded.

  • Unchecked—Outlying customers will not be excluded; all customers will be considered. This is the default.

Boolean

Cut-off Distance

(Optional)

The distance beyond which customers will be considered outliers and excluded from consideration during trade area generation.

Linear Unit

Dissolve Option

(Optional)

Specifies whether polygons of the entire area will be created or the polygons will be split into individual features. When the Method parameter is set to Threshold Drive Times, the only available option is Overlap.

  • Overlap—Output polygons will be generated in which each feature begins at zero and grows to satisfy the specified percentage of customers. For example, if you specify a trade area of 50 percent and 70 percent of customers, one polygon will be generated to include 0 to 50 percent and a second polygon will include all 0 to 70 percent of customers. This is the default.

  • Split—Output polygons will be generated for individual features based on the specified percentage breaks. For example, if you specify a trade area of 50 percent and 70 percent of customers, one polygon will be generated to include 0 to 50 percent and a second polygon will include 50 to 70 percent of customers.

String

Use Customers Centroid for Trade Area Center

(Optional)

Specifies whether the centroid of your customer area will be used to calculate trade areas outward from this point.

  • Checked—The centroid of customer points will be used to calculate trade areas.

  • Unchecked—The centroid of customer points will not used; store location will be used as the starting point to calculate trade areas. This is the default.

Boolean

Distance Type

(Optional)

The method of travel that will be used to calculate the distance.

String

Distance Units

(Optional)

The units that will be used for the distance values.

String

Travel Direction

(Optional)

Specifies the direction of travel toward or away from stores.

  • Toward stores—The direction of travel will be toward stores. This is the default.

  • Away from stores—The direction of travel will be away from stores.

String

Time of Day

(Optional)

The time and date that will be used when calculating distance.

Date

Time Zone

(Optional)

Specifies the time zone that will be used for the Time of Day parameter.

  • Time Zone at Location—The time zone in which the territories are located will be used. This is the default.

  • UTC—Coordinated universal time (UTC) will be used.

String

Search Tolerance

(Optional)

The maximum distance that input points can be from the network. Points located beyond the search tolerance will be excluded from processing.

This parameter requires a distance value and units for the tolerance.

Linear Unit

Polygon Detail

(Optional)

Specifies the level of detail that will be used for the output drive time polygons.

  • Standard—Polygons with a standard level of detail will be created. This is the default.

  • Generalized—Generalized polygons will be created using the hierarchy present in the network data source to produce results quickly.

  • High—Polygons with a high level of detail will be created for applications in which precise results are important.

String

Iterations Limit

(Optional)

Restricts the number of drive times that can be used to find the optimal threshold limit.

Long

Minimum Step

(Optional)

The minimum increment distance or time—for example, 1 mile or 1 minute—that will be used between iterations to expand until the threshold is reached.

Double

Threshold Percent Difference

(Optional)

The maximum percentage difference between the target value and threshold value that will be used when determining the threshold drive time, for example, 5 percent. The default value is 5.

Double

Environments

Current Workspace, Data Source, Network Source

Licensing information

  • Basic: Requires Business Analyst
  • Standard: Requires Business Analyst
  • Advanced: Requires Business Analyst